


Just Take Your Time

by everyperfectsummer



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Mortal/Immortal Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 17:10:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11295045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyperfectsummer/pseuds/everyperfectsummer
Summary: Prompt: Atomic heat, fanfic, fairytale/fantasy setting.





	Just Take Your Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RazzleyD](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RazzleyD/gifts).



> This is kind of a song fic, for “Stay” by Zedd and Alessia Cara.

The bluebirds are singing a romantic tune in the background as Mick leans in, his breath warm against Ray’s lips. Ray closes his eyes reflexively in anticipation of the kiss and – 

 

“Mick and Ray-mond, sitting in a tree,” Sara sing-songs from below them. The birds abruptly start squawking in indignation, and Ray and Mick sigh in unison. So much for a romantic night  _ alone _ .

 

Ray looks down from where he’s straddling the tree branch, and sees the rest of the Legends below, showing various states of surprised ranging from not-at-all (Len) to looking utterly shocked (Amaya).

 

“K-I-S-S-,” Rip claps a hand over Sara’s mouth, clearly ill at ease with either Sara’s teasing or interrupting a private display of affection.

 

“Mr. Rory, Mr. Palmer,” he says, stiffly, and then winces as Sara licks his hand. Jax and Sara start giggling, and Len’s perpetual smirk widens slightly.

 

“Prince Charming and Robin Hood’s second are  _ together? _ ” Amaya sounds incredibly confused.

 

Ray puts a hand on Mick’s knee and beams. “Yes!” 

 

“But – you’re immortal, and Mick isn’t!” she says, and Ray instantly sees what the problem is. Having been stuck in Fairie since the forties, Amaya’s frequently a little behind on social norms.

 

“It’s ok,” he explains to her, “I’m going to become mortal, like Mick. We can do that, now, have been able to since the 60s. So that a mortal and an immortal can be together.”

 

Mick stiffens beside him, and Ray knows instantly that he’s said something wrong, but doesn’t know what.

 

Mick turns his head and makes eye contact with Len, and his partner in crime stands up, tugging Sara and Jax by the hand. “Everybody  _ out _ ,” he says commandingly, and in seconds, the clearing is empty, a bewildered Amaya being tugged after the rest of them.

 

Ray turns to Mick, feeling no less bewildered than Amaya had been. “Mick, what’s wrong?”

 

“You said you want to be mortal, so that you can be with me,” Mick says, toneless.

 

“It’s in all the stories. If a mortal and an immortal fall in love, one of them has to give up their status for the other.” 

 

The bluebirds sing a short tune, the traditional melody meant to symbolize sacrifice for love. They’re a bit off key, but they’re trying, so he gives them an appreciative smile. 

 

Mick just looks at him, face blank. 

 

“You never seemed like you wanted to be immortal, so I assumed…” Ray trails off. “You don’t want me to become mortal, do you.” It’s not a question so much as a realization. The birds abruptly stop singing.

 

Mick folds his arms. “Do I want you to change who you are and give up your fairytale forever for me? ‘Course not. Becoming mortal would mean you dying someday.” 

 

If  _ that’s _ the issue, there is no issue, not for Ray. “I’d die for you,” he says earnestly, and even though Mick smiles back at him, there’s something incredibly sad in Mick’s eyes.

 

“I know, Charming,” he says. “I don’t want you to.” 

 

There’s silence for a beat, and then Mick, sounding suddenly unsure, asks, “Do you want me to become immortal? Live forever, for you? With you?”

 

Ray considers it. Considers an eternity of Mick by his side, never aging, never changing, just quest after quest, both of them heroes – or, well, semi heroes, in Mick’s case, but heroes nonetheless – and finds that he can’t quite picture it. It’s blurry and out of focus, an image that’s just out of reach.

 

“We don’t have to grow up, grow old. We can stay young, forever,” he says, “and we could be together for forever, too.” As he says the words, he knows they’re wrong. He knows that Mick’s mortal, his body aging, bringing him closer to dying of old age with each day that passes and – and Ray knows that he couldn’t change that about Mick without changing the very essence of who Mick is. 

 

“No,” he says, finally. “No, I don’t want you to change like that. I...I want to live with you, for as long as I can. But I don’t want you to change yourself for me. It’s like that one quote, about the candles. You were meant to burn bright, not burn forever. And I’m. Well, the opposite, I guess, and. I’d change for you, die for you, but. Not if you don’t want me to.”

 

There’s something odd in Mick’s eyes, an emotion Ray can’t quite place, as Mick smiles crookedly and says, “Well. Now we’ve both offered, and both been refused.”

 

“But if I’m not changing and you’re not changing…” A mortal and an immortal, staying in a relationship together, each heading towards a separate fate and still  _ staying together _ ...it goes against all the stories. 

 

But then, so does heroes and villains working together. So does everything the Legends have done together. What’s one more thing?

 

“Does either of us have to?” Mick asks, and it sounds like an answer, not a question.

 

“No,” Ray breathes in excitement, “no, no we don’t. We can just –”

 

“Stay,” Mick says, “stay like we are, and stay together.”

 

Ray reaches out, and puts his hands on Mick’s. “I’ll probably have to watch you die, someday.” And it aches, to even think about Mick dying, in a way that thinking about his own death doesn’t. In a way that thinking about the two of them dying together, minutes before, hadn’t. “Assuming I don’t get killed first. And – I’ve never been good, at. At letting go.” But despite the ache, he has to make sure Mick understands. “But I will, eventually.”

 

“You’ll move on,” Mick says, gently. “Just like with Felicity, and with Anna, and with all the people who’ll come after me.” That last part, about the people who’ll come after, sounds like an order and a plea all in one.  _ Please let there be people after me, _ Mick is saying.  _ Don’t spend the rest of your immortal life hung up on a memory. _

 

Ray nods, but that’s not quite it, not quite the problem. How to tell him, how to  _ explain _ . 

 

“I’m going to live for a really, really,  _ really _ long time, Mick. Not quite forever, but...long enough that I’ll forget things that happened, centuries ago. I’ve already forgotten so much, I’m already forgetting Anna, and someday – again assuming I don’t get killed first – I’ll forget you too.”

 

Instead of looking unhappy, Mick just smiles, soft and gentle in a way that shouldn’t fit on Mick’s rough face but instead sits perfectly. “That’s ‘kay, Charming. We don’t have to be together forever to be together. Either forever in death or in immortality or even in your memories. We can just be together until we aren’t. Now’s enough.”

 

Ray smiles back, feeling his lips wobble slightly as he does so. “Now’s enough,” he repeats, feeling the weight of the words settle around him like a spell. “Now’s enough.” 

 

In the background, the bluebirds start singing again.


End file.
